Mitch Landrieu gets off on a congenial footing with Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux

Mayor Mitch Landrieu didn't stay long at the public forum Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux
held Tuesday night at Xavier University to explain how his office
works, but he stayed long enough to make clear the sharp difference
between his attitude toward the office and that of Ray Nagin.

Times-Picayune archiveNew Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux

Nagin grudgingly accepted the new office, which the City Council took
the lead in creating, but it was clear he never welcomed it. His
administration disputed or dismissed almost all the reports and
recommendations Quatrevaux and his predecessors issued, and Nagin
sometimes griped about the size of the office's budget.

By contrast, Landrieu said in his opening remarks at the forum, it took
his new administration only half an hour to give Quatrevaux's office
files that the independent police monitor had been trying for months,
without success, to get from the Police Department.

Landrieu also promised to "cooperate fully" with the inspector
general's office in reforming the city's processes for awarding
professional-services contracts.

The devil, of course, will be in the details, and it will be no
surprise if Landrieu, like his predecessor, ends up taking issue with
some of Quatrevaux's future reports or recommendations.

But on Tuesday, it was impossible to imagine Nagin saying, as Landrieu
did, that for a public official, the inspector general "can be your
best friend."